Chapter 1, Nightmares
by CloudwatcherAndy
Summary: Harry is haunted by the future holds and is having trouble sleeping. Things turn worse when he's put in detention with Draco Malfoy for one week and it's clear to Harry that there's something wrong with Draco.


This is my first Drarry fanfic.

All of the characters and settings in the Wizarding world mentioned below belong to the author herself J.K Rowling and various publishing companies, including (but not limiting to) Blossombury Books and Warner Bros Inc.

No copyright infringement intended.

Story genre: Drama/Angst

The story is based after the Triwizard Tournament when Harry begins his fifth year at Hogwarts.

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><p><em>Harry sat alone in a room where there were no doors or windows although light seemed to be coming from somewhere. It was a faint light that was quite blurry and glowed different shades of blue that formed into liquid shapes before him. They were random shapes that didn't really resemble anything. One looked like a heart but had pointy triangle shapes erupting from the centre. Another looked like a circle but seemed to be morphing into something else and at one point Harry thought something was going to burst out of it. Suddenly the room shook slightly and ripples spread across the floor underneath his feat which he now realized was water. <em>

"_Harry!" screamed a female voice. He recognized the voice immediately. It was none other than Hermione Granger. Her voice echoed throughout the room, almost hauntingly, before fading into the eerie silence before._

"_Hermione!" he questioned while his eyes searched frantically for her,_

"_Harry!" she screamed again, he ran to where her frightened voice came from. Quickly he pressed his ear against the wall in an attempt to hear her again. _

"_Hermione!" he exclaimed, _

"_Harry!" shouted a male voice. Again, he recognized it immediately. It was none other than Ron Weasley. His voice echoed from the other side of the room which Harry immediately ran too. _

"_Ron?" He did the same as he had before and pressed his ear against the wall so much so it hurt. _

"_Harry!" he shouted again, this time louder which tugged at Harry's heartstrings. He knew his friends were in some sort of danger and that they needed him but he couldn't help them._

"_Harry!" Hermione screamed again, this time a sounding lot more desperate than before. Almost forgetting Ron, he ran to the other side of the room. This time he punched at the wall in an attempt to reach her but it bounced back like elastic. He ran his sweaty fingers through his ruffled hair and looked around the room for any escape._

"_Harry!" Ron shouted again,_

"_Harry!" Hermione screamed again,_

"_Harry!"_

"_Harry!" Harry stood in the centre of the room, unsure of who to save and how to save them. He was so confused, so powerless - he felt like a coward. _

"_Harry!"_

"_Harry!"_

_His head ached as the distraught voices became louder, louder, louder and louder until finally they stopped, leaving Harry in a uncontrollable mess of tears as he crouched down, unable to face his fears. He couldn't do anything, he couldn't be the hero everyone wanted him to be, he couldn't save anyone, he couldn't defeat Voldemort - With that thought the dream shifted into a scene Harry knew all to well. He knew all the words, all the stage directions, all the characters - everything. Cedric lay dead on the floor, Voldemort stood before him. It was the night Voldemort had been reborn. Although something was different, instead of escaping, Harry didn't. He was tortured by Voldemort and his followers who laughed when appropriate as he was tossed across the graveyard like a rag doll, under the influence of the Cruciatus curse. Although it was his dream he couldn't control what was happening. It wasn't his domain, he was somewhere far more sinister, more foreboding and unfamiliar than his subconscious. He hit the ground hard which seemed to separate his mind from himself as he stood up in a eerie ectoplasm form and watched as Voldemort stood before him. And then with one final flick of his wand and a flash of blinding green light everything went black and reality flooded back into him._

Harry awoke breathing heavily and somewhat hysterically. He lay wearing a bland t-shirt, which was plastered against his back from sweat, and a pair of black boxers. The covers were thrown on the floor sometime during his nightmare and his pure white skin shone angelically where the moonlight hit him from the open window. He breathed in and out, quick short breaths that had no rhythm to them until he finally settled to a slow panting after he'd established where he was - his dormitory.

Nightmares like this had haunted Harry ever since the night Cedric had died and Voldemort had been reborn. The beginnings were never the same. Although there was always a situation in which Harry had to make a difficult choice that made them familiar. Usually involving two people, two of which were usually Ron and Hermione, who he had to save. But he could only save one. Most of the time it was too much for him and he just collapsed into a fit of tears although there were the occasional times when it was easy: Luna Lovegood or Draco Malfoy? To which he obviously saved Luna. The endings were always the same though, except for tonight. He hadn't escaped and it was like he was reliving it and creating a new memory, rather than revisiting and watching an old one. Ron snored loudly, interrupting his reminiscence of the strangely vivid nightmare. He shuddered at the thought of what might've happened if he hadn't escaped on that fateful night and walked towards the window ledge.

The night was clear with a blanket of twinkling stars shining above him. Since Hogwarts was so far away from any Muggle civilization the nights were always relatively clear, unless clouds covered the sky. From his dormitory window Harry could see most of the grounds surrounding Hogwarts. He preferred looking down at them at night because they were just so quiet and eerily beautiful, almost as if the world was at peace. Which of course it wasn't. Voldemort was back and Harry could only imagine the amount of death and destruction he'd bring to the world, if he didn't stop him that is. Which he knew he had to. Over the summer holidays he'd come to realize this and thought he'd come to terms with the fact that he would someday have to face Voldemort again but his subconscious obviously thought otherwise.

A slow breeze drifted by, interrupting his trail of thought. He knew he wasn't going back to sleep again. One nightmare a night was bad enough and although he couldn't control his dreams he could control when he went to sleep. A shooting star streamed across the night sky, catching his attention, before disappearing beyond the hills that surrounded the lake. Harry knew what time it was. He'd gotten so used to these nightmares and awaking so suddenly from them that whenever the famous shooting star raced past he knew it was either 3 or 4am. He never knew why but he figured Aurora Sinistra, the Astronomy teacher, had something to do with it. This meant he would have to wait two hours until getting showered and dressed, but it wasn't long in his opinion. These two or three hours in which he waited for sunrise were usually occupied with wandering thoughts which he didn't think about during the day. They never lingered because they were so trivial. Most of his wandering thoughts at the moment concerned his O. which were later this year. Others concerned his classmates, about girls he liked and Draco Malfoy because he was a pain in the ass. Harry didn't know why he hated Malfoy so much, maybe it was because Malfoy hated him as much back which Harry fully believed he did. Or maybe it was because Malfoy always found a way to humiliate him that made him feel so defenceless. Harry didn't like the feeling of vulnerability and the way Malfoy's lips moved into a mocking smile when he knew Harry didn't have a comeback, or the way his grey eyes twinkled almost mischievously whenever he saw Harry seemed to expose him. So maybe that was the reason why he hated him so much - because he needed to. Because if he didn't maybe people would see that he wasn't the boy everyone thought he was. He wasn't brave, he wasn't strong and he couldn't defeat Voldemort. The only people that seemed to believe he could were Ron, Hermione and Dumbledore. Harry shook his head in an attempt to get rid of the thoughts he couldn't bare to face in reality and looked towards the horizon which was beginning to glow a light red.

The Great Hall was filled with chatter and the smell of piping hot food served for breakfast. Ron and Hermione walked behind Harry as they grabbed nearby seats. He didn't know what they were arguing about, which they were doing a lot of this year, but it sounded like Ron wanted Hermione to do his Potions homework because he was behind with his other classes which she refused to do as usual but instead offered to tutor him. As soon as Harry sat down the people around him stopped talking. He knew why this was, the Daily Prophet refused to believe that Voldemort was back and nearly everyone, with the exception of the Weasly family, Hermione, Luna and Dumbledore, thought he was a liar. A moment passed before they continued with their own conversations after a few stood up and walked away while giving disapproving glances on their way. Hermione sighed.

"Don't worry about them Harry, people will soon believe You Know-"

"Voldemort" he corrected coldly,

"Right … well, they'll soon believe he's back and as soon as they do people will treat you the same again" she smiled. Hermione's smile was always motherly and heartfelt and Harry couldn't help but smile back, even though he had little hope that people would ever treat him the same again. When he first arrived at Hogwarts he was known only as the Boy Who Lived and nothing more, with the exception of his friends, and after a few years people started treating him almost normally but now he was known as a liar. He almost missed his previous title but most of all he wished he didn't have a title.

Breakfast was short. Close to 9.00am the teachers began making their way to their classes to prepare for their morning lessons. A few students followed as the hall began to disperse slowly. Hermione, as usual, followed suit after the teachers left with Ron trailing after her leaving Harry to finish his breakfast alone. Classes started at 9.10 and Harry had McGonagall first and she didn't like it when students were late, regardless of how much she liked them. Slowly he began eating his cold breakfast, not tasting just automatically putting the food into his mouth in the small hope that it would give him some energy for the rest of the day. Harry knew he needed to concentrate this year because, as his teachers kept reminding him, it was a VERY important year however he didn't really see the point and these nightmares were just a distraction that helped him pay no attention to his schoolwork. Lost in his own thoughts, Harry didn't notice as the Great Hall slowly began melt all around him, like a candle melting against fire, as the scene changed to a dark and menacing looking forest. A figure stood in the centre of the forest holding a bundle of something in their arms that looked like it was moving. Blinking, Harry looked around sleepily before the realization that he wasn't in the Great Hall hit him and fear flooded into his veins. For a few moments he didn't realize he was dreaming until he found himself in his normal clothes and not his Hogwarts school uniform. The figure turned around and in their arms lay a horrible looking creature, it had blood on it's almost green coloured skin and red slits for eyes that looked at Harry with a desperate hunger, as if it longed for his flesh. For a second it writhed in pain and cried out in the form of a whisper before the figure holding it dropped it into a cauldron that just seemed to appear before him. Then the figure wearing the black hooded robe removed his hood. Harry knew what it was, it was Voldemort but in his new form which was equally frightening. Whimpering, he turned to run but was knocked down by a spell. Voldemort moved towards him, quick graceful movements that looked as if he was hovering above the ground, before he crouched down to Harry's level, smiling cruelly. Slowly and painfully he stabbed his wand into Harry's cheek as he lay there, unable to move, paralysed by fear. Then, with the movement Harry knew all to well, a blinding flash of green light filled the dream - The Great Hall materialized before him. Breathing quickly, he looked around but none was in sight. Plates with food left on them lay scattered around the various house tables and the smells of various foods still lingered. Slowly his breathing calmed as he reminded himself of where he was and who he was before hurrying off to his first lesson, hoping that no one had seen him sleeping. He would hate it if he was now known throughout the school as Sleeping Beauty.

Harry walked quickly and purposefully to Transfiguration, he didn't want to run because he knew someone would catch him and demand why he was running in the halls and he was already late. The halls of Hogwarts were eerily empty, there was always someone or something roaming the halls during daytime but perhaps it was too early.

Eventually he reached the classroom and paused, he had no idea what time it was and he didn't know what kind of excuse to come up with. He couldn't say he fell asleep, he'd never hear the end of it from Malfoy let alone everybody else. Perhaps he could say he got lost? No that wouldn't work he was in his 6th year at Hogwarts -

"Potter." a female voice said emotionlessly. Harry turned to see Professor McGonagall standing behind him with a look of disappointment scared across her aging face.

"Professor McGonagall …" he began as he quickly searched his brain for an excuse but she interrupted him,

"Where have you been?" she demanded,

"I was - well you see I - I was" he stuttered,

"Enough. I didn't expect you of all people to be late to my class, this is a very important year for you. I cannot let this go unpunished." Harry nodded slightly, he knew McGonagall would be firm with him because she only pushed those who she wanted to succeed the most. "You will -" her voice trailed off as Malfoy appeared behind Harry. His eyes were slightly red but apart from that his usual façade of a perfect student was present.

"Mr Malfoy" she said, her voice was somewhat harsher than when she dealt with Harry "And why are you late?"

"I overslept." he said, his words were a lot calmer than they normally were. Usually whenever he spoke his tone was quite aggressive but today he seemed a lot tamer, like a lion shot with a tranquilizer.

"Hm. Well as I was saying to Mr Potter I cannot let your tardiness go unpunished, I will see to it that both of you have a week of detentions spent together." Harry sighed grumpily. The last person he'd want to spend a week stuck in a room with was Malfoy.

"And, as much as I hate to do this 30 points from both Gryffindor and Slytherin." Again Harry sighed grumpily but Malfoy seemed unfazed by this and continued staring directly at McGonagall, almost as if he believed she would add more punishments if he changed eye-contact.

"I will see both of you here tonight at 5pm , now get inside and try to make up for what knowledge you've lost in the half an hour you've been asleep Mr Malfoy the half an hour you were doing whatever Potter." she finished while looking suspiciously at the both of them.

Malfoy pushed in front of Harry as he walked towards Crabbe and Goyle and Harry walked towards Ron and Hermione who were both looking worried. He didn't blame them, he would be too, he was half an hour late for class and so was Draco Malfoy, who knows what they could've been doing together.

"Harry!" Hermione hissed as he sat down and McGonagall started swiftly moving between the desks, checking everyone was on task "Where have you been? Your half an hour late!" It came to no surprise to Harry that Hermione was startled and no less than a little angry. She valued education more than anything and didn't like it when him or Ron, in her words, "Slipped between the cracks of the foundation of Wizarding education." Especially since this was a VERY important year, in the words of Professor McGonagall and many other teachers.

"I uh" he stammered, he wanted to tell them the truth but something kept him from saying anything, instead he made up an excuse that didn't require much explanation that he wished he'd used on McGonagall "Dumbledore wanted to see me." Hermione's facial expression relaxed a little and she smiled slightly before scribbling down notes on the board. Sighing, Harry did the same, he should've been glad that his friends believed his statement but somehow he wished they would've noticed he was lying like he had when Malfoy had said he'd overslept. Because that obviously wasn't true from the look in his eyes and the way he spoke.

The rest of the day went by in a blur. It seemed as though most days were like that to Harry, since he had little energy to concentrate in any of them. Plus Malfoy was surprisingly quiet which was a relief as Harry wasn't in the mood for any conflict. Although, as much as he despised Malfoy and really couldn't care less about what he did, he still wandered what he was doing that caused him to be half an hour late for Transfiguration. Even though he and Malfoy didn't really know each other, like he knew Ron and Hermione, everyone knew that Malfoy, as much as he tried to hide it, cared about school. Which was rare, for anyone like Malfoy. Crabbe and Goyle really couldn't care less about school and Pansy Parkinson was always sent out of lessons for inappropriate behaviour so for someone like Malfoy to hang around with people like that one would automatically assume he didn't care. But he did. That's why Harry found it so odd that he was late for class.

In Potions class Harry forced himself to look awake. He knew Snape would catch him yawning or resting his eyes even for the slightest of seconds so he kept on pinching himself to try and look somewhat interested even though he didn't care. Hermione answered all of the questions as usual because no one else really bothered as it was the last lesson of the day however Snape made sure he didn't let anyone off. He ordered everyone to brew Scintillation Solution which

was an old recipe that most textbooks didn't have and the ones Snape did have he gave only to the Slytherins, telling everyone else they could use their intuitive. Harry teamed up with Ron and Hermione, in the small hope they would know what to do. It was better than going with Seamus for a start because he was going to probably blow up everything as usual.

BANG!

Harry turned to see Seamus and Dean covered in black suit with smoke overflowing from their cauldron. As everyone else laughed Harry noticed Malfoy looking down and rubbing his eyes. Perhaps he was crying? No Harry thought, Draco Malfoy did not cry, he was probably the coldest person Harry knew when it came to expressing his emotions. He probably just got something in his eye, nevertheless Harry was still not convinced that everything was all right in Malfoys world.

Detention came around too quickly. Harry said goodbye to Ron and Hermione in the Gryffindor common room who were complaining how it wasn't fair that he had to go to detention because he was called in to see Dumbledore but he ignored it and merely shrugged in response.

Malfoy was already sitting down in the front row, copying notes from the board. Professor McGonagall was nowhere to be seen. Sighing, Harry poked his head in and out of various doors that lead to other rooms in the classroom, trying to make as little noise as possible so not to disturb Malfoy. He really didn't want to deal with him tonight.

"She's gone to see the librarian, Miss Pinch" Malfoy said, keeping his eyes down on his work,

"Oh okay, thanks" Harry replied awkwardly. He stood there for a few seconds before remembering what to do. He got out his parchment and quill and began scribbling down notes in a haphazard fashion, he wanted this to be over as soon as possible. After a few minutes Malfoy stopped writing and raised his head,

"Can you stop making that noise?" he asked irritably,

"What noise?" Harry replied with a confused expression,

"Your quill, it's annoying me"

"It makes the same noise as yours does …"

"No. My quill doesn't make a noise, yours however does. So stop writing with it or get a new one." Draco said slowly and seriously, as if Harry were a child being told not to do something.

"I'm not going to go to the effort of buying a new quill for someone like you Malfoy" Harry retorted, returning to his unfinished work. A few moments passed before Malfoy raised his head again, this time looking a lot more annoyed than before.

"Look Potter, I want to get through these detentions as quickly as possible but I can't do that with your quill scribbling away like fucking a lawn mower, so either buy a new one or stop writing!" he exclaimed. Harry looked taken aback at Malfoys sudden outburst but quickly hid his expression and snapped back,

"Malfoy, listen to me when I say this: I am not going to buy a new quill just for your satisfaction and comfort so deal with it." And with that reply something snapped within Malfoy, he hit his fists against the desk and threw his work across the floor as he clenched his fists, probably in an attempt to stop him from doing anything else. A few moments passed as Harry looked at him, unsure of whether to continue with his work and ignore him or help him, somehow. Malfoy ran his fingers through his hair, ruffling it's perfect shape before he pushed his desk away and began walking either angrily or purposefully, Harry couldn't decide which, towards the door. Something inside Harry told him to stop him and like always he foolishly followed his instincts'.

"Malfoy wait" he commanded as he caught up to him. Malfoy turned and looked at Harry, his eyes seemed different, as if a new hatred that Harry couldn't sum up dwelled inside of him. It was a different type of hate than what he felt for Harry which was a strong dislike mixed with jealousy. But it scared Harry and made him feel even more weak and defenceless than usual.

"What!" he spat,

"Are you okay?"

"Okay?" he laughed somewhat madly and Harry wished he hadn't asked the question, realizing how stupid is sounded - he obviously wasn't okay. "OKAY?" He shouted, this time louder and with that he punched Harry in face causing him to fall backwards and hit the stone floor hard. Blood oozed out from his nose and the back of his head as the world span unevenly around him, as if he were on a merry-go-round. Harry didn't know Malfoy could punch that hard. Blinking, he tried to move but his head felt like the weight of a thousand bricks.

"You think I'm okay?" he asked rhetorically "You wouldn't know the difference between feeling okay and not feeling okay Potter! Everything is always given to you and you have the nerve to ask if I'm okay? As if I need your charity!" He kicked Harry as he tried to get up again and watched as he helplessly lay there while trying to make sense of what was happening. Malfoy coughed loudly, almost a choking sound and Harry wondered if he was trying to restrain himself from crying but he couldn't wonder any longer as Malfoy kicked him once more before walking off, leaving him in a puddle of blood on the floor.

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><p>Right okay, so this was my first attempt at writing a Drarry fanfic. I used repetition way too many times and I don't think some of makes sense but whatever - there will be more. Write a review if you like, I'd be happy to know what other people think. :3<p> 


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